the unknown others ... [being some quick notes on the soundtrack for the piece of canned food called Anjaane: the Unknown]

After the Dimple/Amitabh/Dharam cure for insomnia called Hum Kaun Hain, the marquee gets another dose of desii-ised The Others with a clunker called Anjaane. Meshy Miami Rehash does the musical honours for this long-in-the-cans flick featuring the devastating combination of Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Kapoor and Tejasvini Kolhapure. The songs boast simple arrangements, and this provides an early indicator of just how bland, boring and maudlin they are. HR continues to sound like a worthy follower of the Nadeem Shravan distillate of Shankar Jaikishen and Laxmikant Pyarelal. And he's increasingly sounding like himself. With A R Rahman this is sometimes not a bad thing; with HR it's like a migraine in perpetual déjà vu. de do re de do uses a sample that sounds like it came off ma.ngataa hai kyaa from Rangeela. And in the department of the howlarious, we have a song called Mummy Cool (a tribute to Boney M or Anu Malik's tongue-nowhere-near-the-cheek contribution to Chaahat [the Mahesh Bhatt movie, not the Jhanghiani love scene vehicle]). And there's more gibberish/kid-talk following that addictive line.

The songs are loaded with the simplistic catchy (and subsequently gut-gnawing) riffs that HR has been peddling in each of his albums. And he's up there in the popularity charts. Boggles the mind.